Three Art Tarots
RE-ISSUE
September 23, 2023, 6 PM (CPH)
Live event celebrating the release of three art tarots, now available in standard edition.
Of the seven cartomancy decks Camelia Elias created to date under the signature of Read like the Devil, following her own ‘one cut, one blood’ method, three decks come with quirky writing. These are Arcades Tarot, Red Tarot, and Baka Tarot.
While Arcades Tarot is accompanied by a book of haiku poems and Red Tarot by a sheet of maxims, Baka Tarot comes with a white book that’s not even little.
Initially, each of these tarots has been offered as a strictly limited edition talisman. You can read about the production of each here. On the day of the launch, each sold out in a manner of minutes. ‘That’s it?’ people asked, and the answer was, ‘that’s it.’
While one can never make the same talisman twice, by popular demand, a standard edition of Arcades Tarot, Red Tarot, and Baka Tarot has been released. They are now all available from the Read like the Devil shop with the Make Playing Cards company.
DIVINATORY ART ACROSS GENRES
Haiku poems, maxims, philosophy and the practice of divination in context.
THE BOOKS
As for the books that accompany these tarots, note that they are published by EyeCorner Press and globally distributed via online stores, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and others. Only the Red Tarot deck comes with the maxims that describe the cards, as these snappy lines are fitted on a card and its verso.
The books that accompany the Arcades Tarot and the Baka Tarot are also more amply described in the EyeCorner Press catalogue. As for Red Tarot, you get the maxims with the deck.
THE BOX
The size of the decks are standard tarot sizes for the Red Tarot and the Baka Tarot, while the Arcades Tarot is printed on poker size cards. Each deck comes in a plain white tuck box. If you want your box embellished with the glyphs and image you see in my pictures here, you can download this file that contains all three. Print the images, cut them out, and glue them to your box.
THE ART
You can read more about the art and what went into the creation of each of these tarots as a talismanic, magical object in the Art section of Camelia Elias’ website, each tarot having a dedicated entry.
Arcades Tarot was made in 2019.
Red Tarot was made in 2020.
Baka Tarot was made in 2023.
THE SAKE
Due to the calligraphic nature of these tarots, at least where the art of composition is concerned, at the live event, sake and signatures are served in equal measure, as befitting a book launch at EyeCorner Press.
